Silent Weekend

Today, I am dedicating an entire post to just one event because it's that special. To give a little background, I needed to attend two deaf events for my ASL class. Back in September, I was looking online and found an event called Silent Weekend, and immediately signed up for it (and even paid a good chunk of money). Let me tell you...it turned out to be an amazing weekend! I arrived at the camp on Friday, November 12th, extremely nervous, but left the camp on Sunday, November 14th, wishing I didn't have to leave. 


I think the website does a good job at summing up what exactly Silent Weekend is:
"A 48 hour immersion of sign language for hearing ASL college students, 18 years and above (please do not ask if younger individuals can attend) who join together with our professional staff that is comprised of deaf, hearing impaired, and hearing individuals, who are affiliated with the deaf community, outside of the classrom setting, for a multitude of weekend signing activities including exposure to Deaf Culture -- with proceeds benefitting our Deaf Kid's Kamp."


Doesn't that sound like a fun time? Well...it was! I am amazed at how much I learned in less than 48 hours! I picked up on so many new signs, and learned a lot more about deaf culture. It would take me forever to write about the entire experience, but I will try to hit some of the highlights.


Total, there were 20 ASL students who attended. Then there were the staff members, and two of them were deaf. Tobin and Richard Beans were the names of the two deaf men. At first, I was very scared about signing with deaf people because I was afraid my signing would be horrible or that I would not be able to understand them. I quickly learned that the two deaf staff members were so nice and patient with us, and they would help us along by fingerspelling signs that we didn't know. Something I took away from this weekend is that I am much more confident about signing with deaf people now.

This is Tobin. He was kind of shy, but very nice.

This is Richard Beans. He was a pretty funny story-teller!

We had a lot of activities and workshops that helped us learn more signs or about deaf culture. There was a workshop where we learned about hearing ear dogs (service dogs), which I didn't even know about before coming to this camp. You always hear about seeing eye dogs, but it was interesting learning that hearing ear dogs can help deaf people by recognizing certain sounds and pointing the deaf person in the right direction. For example, if the dog hears a knock on the door, it will get the deaf person's attention and take them to the door. At the camp, they had two service dogs.

This one's name is Oki.

On Saturday night, everyone had to participate in "Saturday Night Live", which means either performing a skit or song (in ASL of course). I didn't have anything prepared, so I joined someone else's group who had brought music and lyrics. The song that we signed to was "Love Can Build a Bridge" by the Judds (I had never heard the song before this weekend), and it turned out much better than I thought it would. We had some of the staff members helping us out with signs that we did not know. Also, we had learned that when signing songs or stories, you don't want to sign it out word for word, but instead to sign the overall meaning of what is being said. It was really fun watching the other groups (including staff members) perform as well!

The young girl is the granddaughter of the executive director of Silent Weekend, and the other woman is a staff member named Rebecca. She has the craziest laugh! Right here they are performing "The 12 Days of Christmas" from a dog's point of view.

The executive director's name is Buffy, and she was once married to the man who started Deaf Kid's Kamp (a free camp for deaf children) and Silent Weekend (a fundraising event that supports Deaf Kid's Kamp), Terry. Unfortunately, Terry died of a heart attack in 1994, and Buffy would share some of his stories with us. Terry was a deaf man, but he would also use his voice to speak to hearing people.

Buffy has some health conditions of her own, and needs a lung transplant. She was very sweet and told us so many stories about Terry and the Deaf Kid's Kamp.

So, I pretty much had a wonderful experience at Silent Weekend. I don't think I've ever had so much fun learning before. I also won a certificate for 50% off my next Silent Weekend...I am seriously considering going again in the spring! Whether or not I use ASL in my future career, I definitely want to continue learning the language and hopefully someday becoming fluent.

The 20 ASL students (plus my mom, who was just there picking me up).

Had to hold up the sign for "I love you"! :)

The staff - they were so incredibly helpful!

To sum up: I loved Silent Weekend!

The Happenings of Senior Year

It may seem as though I have forgotten about my poor, lonely blog. I keep finding other activities to occupy my time - mainly school, but I would be lying if I said that school work took up all my time.

Speaking of school, I am shocked at how quickly this semester is going by. My senior year will be over with before I know it! What will happen then? I'm not 100% sure myself, so for now I am just focusing on the present. My three classes this semester are the following: Software Engineering, Intro to Modeling (mathematical modeling...I'm not learning to walk the cat-walk), and American Sign Language. The first two classes are not very exciting, but I am really enjoying ASL. That's right - I am actually enjoying a class! I can honestly say this is my favorite class I have ever taken here at Redlands. I don't know what exactly it is about the subject, but I look forward to the class every week (it meets only once a week). It's fun, challenging, and learning about deaf culture is very interesting. Needless to say, I am continuing with American Sign Language II next semester.

Let's move on to the non-academic activities! In the last two months, I have...

Made new friends:

Sabrina, my roommate's sister

Received visits from old friends:

Kristen, Felicia, and I at the local brewery - Hangar 24

Visited Will during Fall break:

Taking a break from making tasty lasagna.

Attended the "Light the Night" walk:

From left to right: Me, Jayla, Nicolette, and Courtney

Walking in memory of Courtney's dad and my sister

Braved the mazes at Knott's Scary Farm:

Wouldn't have made it without Courtney's courage! ;)

Of course there were more events in the past two months than this, but these are the only ones I have pictures for. Overall, my senior year is going well, but it is going by too quickly. So much to do, so little time!